Well since it’s rather difficult to get your hands on the Eneloop solar charger outside Japan, there’s an easy to get alternative that accomplishes the same thing.

While it’s not nearly as beautiful as the Eneloop charger, and it doesn’t have the brilliant USB connection, but it will still charge a battery using all green energy, and you can actually buy one.

This charger fits most types of batteries as well, it can charge D, C, AA, and AAA batteries. Both NiMH, and NiCad are supported. All these are charged with the on-board 7V solar cell.

It measures 19 x 8.7 x 4cm and weighs only 260 grams, definitely portable enough to carry around in your backpack to ensure your camera batter never dies.

I’m happy to say you can get this one easily online from amazon for about $25

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It seems nanotechnology is finally pulling it’s weight.

Gone are the days of theoretical structures, nanotubes that had great theoretical uses, and promises of tiny robots making us perfect. Now, nanotech is making real progress, and the findings are incredible.

We recently saw the nanowire, which could deliver free energy in theory, but now a company is claiming their “nano-paint” will generate free electricity.

Industrial Nanotech is the company behind this nano-paint, dubbed “Nansulate” is intended to be a form of thermal insulation. They claim their product will generate electricity when it is properly applied inside a structure’s walls
Obviously these claims are quite interesting, however we’ve got to be quite skeptical when it comes to claims about free energy. Energy from nothing? They better have something concrete to back it up.

As it turns out, Nansulate doesn’t exactly produce free energy; it harvests energy from the surrounding environment, similar to the nanowire. It’s placed inside a structure’s walls, and uses the temperature differential between the interior and exterior of the building to generate electricity.

there is almost always, day or night and anywhere in the world, a difference between the temperature inside a building and outside a building gives us an almost constant source of energy generation to tap into.  - Company CEO Stuart Burchill

Now of course, there has to be some source of energy to generate this temperature differential, and it remains to be seen just how much the differential has to be to generate usable electricity, but these claims certainly are exciting.

Could the days of perpetual motion machines and fraudulent free energy “science” be over, replaced by environment nano-harvesting? Well we’ve seen two plausible methods already,who knows what we’ll see in the near future.

via Treehugger

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The Navitas bicycle trailer is a new concept in portable green power.

Designed by Paul Smith, a final year design student at the University of Derby in England, the Navitas is “a pure concept in sustainable transport” explained Smith.

The trailer is a bit of a transformer. It’s wheel splits apart into 3 sections which serve as a wind turbine, and a compact solar panel provides another source of power in case of low wind.  These work together to charge the 24v on-board battery.

The trailer provides power output via a 12v cigarette lighter, and a USB port, allowing you to charge all your USB devices. Charge your iPod on the go!

Surprisingly, there’s no standard outlet, however power inverters intended for cars could be used in the cigarette lighter to provide standard outlets.

It clips easily to the seat post, and as an added eco-bonus, utilized all-LED brake and hazard lights.

This is a fantastic concept, however a method to charge the battery, even just a small charge, without  disconnecting and setting up the whole trailer should have been included, I wouldn’t want to stop just to charge the battery.

This is only a concept, and not currently available for sale, but it certainly seems marketable, and if it ever hits store shelves, we’ll be sure to let you know.

Get more information from the design poster:

via MetaEfficient

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Electric Cyclery, out of Laguna Beach, California, has come up with a great idea for a combination bike: mix an ultra-portable folding bike with a powerful hybrid electric motor.

This is what they came up with: The Biontague. It’s rather unfortunate name came from the names of the two things that were merged: the Montague Paratrooper Folding Bike and the Bionx PL350 electric conversion kit.

The result is an ultra portable bike, at 43.2 lbs, which folds to about a third of it’s size. Perfect for city commuters.

The Bionx has an average maximum speed for bike of about 20mph, however you can always peddle faster. The range is pretty impressive at 60 miles, and you’ll get a full charge in only 3 hours.

The biontague also features a nice control panel. It includes an odometer, charge guage, current power consumption/generation, and electric assistance mode indicator. Hell, with a killer sound system it’ll be just like a car!

You can get this for $2275 from Electric Cyclery, but add $100 to that if you want it shipped out to you (although shipping is only in the continental US I’m sorry to say).

via MetaEfficient

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